


(Considerably More Than) Nine Lives

by darklyndsea



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cats, Gen, Not In Chronological Order, Not a Crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:52:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9141763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darklyndsea/pseuds/darklyndsea
Summary: Henry is an immortal cat who can speak English





	1. Chapter 1

Henry entered the subway car with the crowd, as always keeping an eye out for those who might take offense at his presence. It wasn't too busy at this time of day, so he didn't have to worry too much about getting trampled in the crowd.

Seeing a likely target, he hopped up on a seat and flopped down with his head on her thigh. " _Pet me!_ " he shouted. Humans were so deaf, they could barely even hear him if he spoke normally, to say nothing of understanding. In his 235 years of life, Henry had learned to keep things simple when speaking to humans. Even _Abe_ was only half-fluent (even considering the handicap a human body was when speaking cat), and he'd had nearly 70 years of experience.

The woman looked down from her phone. "киса." Henry had chosen his target well; she immediately lowered her phone and started petting him. Oh, he did love well-trained humans.

" _On your way to a performance, are you?_ " Henry asked rhetorically. " _I thought at first it might be violin, from the calluses on your hands—ooh, yeah, right there, right there—_ " he rolled on his back so that she could get his stomach. It wasn't something he'd do for just anybody, but she was clearly a woman who knew how to pet a cat. " _—it's cello._ " Fortunately, communicating with humans was mostly a matter of using the right tone of voice; Henry could say _anything_ , and as long as he said it in a friendly tone humans wouldn't be put off by it.

The train was approaching a station, apparently the woman's stop. Regretfully, she pet him a little bit more and stood up. "Sorry, kitty," she said. "I wish I could take you home with me, but I'm headed to a performance."

" _I was right!_ " Henry exclaimed, and stretched before hopping down off the seat. " _You are going to a performance! Maybe I can sneak in and listen to it._ "

With no warning, at least from Henry's perspective, everything went flying as the train ran into something. Henry breathed his last while looking at the woman's body and skewered on a subway railing.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a tiny splash in the East River as a small head broke the surface. Few people noticed as Henry swam to the shore and walked out. A few quick shakes removed the worst of the water from his coat, but he was still soaked.

"Hey, it's that cat!" He heard. He recognized the voice, but he still turned and verified who it was: animal control. And not just any animal control employees, but the ones who had an unreasonable vendetta against him. He'd escaped from them a dozen times already; they seemed to think he was some illegal hybrid of _felis catus_ and a wildcat. Both his parents had been perfectly normal domestic cats, thank you very much!

It wasn't as if he was going to stick around and argue with them, though. The last thing he wanted was for them to be even more interested in him, as they would be if they heard him speak English. Besides, even if he were inclined to such idiotic behavior (and it didn't take 200 years of experience to know it was stupid), today was bad enough without compounding his troubles. So he did what any sensible cat would do, and ran.

These men weren't amateurs at their profession. They knew just where to go to cut off his avenues of escape, and how to prevent him from getting past them. They'd been good even the first time he'd encountered them, and they'd only become better. Henry liked to think he'd lent a paw to their on-the-job training. But although they knew he was intelligent and athletic, they thought he was only as intelligent as other cats. While they thought they were trapping him, he'd been planning his escape.

Henry knew this area like the back of his paw, and he knew his capabilities just as well. So he allowed them to chase him into a dead-end alley, with nothing around but a dumpster with a fire escape out of reach above it.

His pursuers slowed, knowing he had nowhere to escape, and extended the pole towards him. He was cornered, with no way to escape. They were sure to catch him this time!

It was an easy leap to the top of the dumpster, and from there onto the fire escape. His pursuers stared up at him, dumbfounded. Just to rub salt in the wound, Henry decided to take the time to bathe. It wasn't as if he was in a hurry anymore.

His day was looking up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Animal control thinks Henry's a Savannah cat. 5th generation and later Savannahs are legal to be owned in New York City, but based on temperament and intelligence they think he's closer to the serval ancestor than that. There's no reason to believe that a serval was wandering around the British isles in the late 1700s.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucas felt a warm weight press against his leg, and looked down to find Mister Fantastic rubbing against him, somehow not getting trampled even though the crowds were already pretty thick.

"Hey, buddy," he said, leaning over to give the cat a pet and take the bag out of his mouth. "You know, you've really got to stop stealing people's lunches and bringing them to me. What are they gonna do for lunch, huh?" Though, really, sometimes it scared Lucas how intelligent Mister Fantastic was. Most cats just brought dead rats to you to teach you how to hunt; Mister Fantastic had apparently realized that humans got their food other ways, and now was feeding Lucas by stealing people's lunches. Really, Lucas should have felt worse about it, but they were _really good_ lunches. (What, like he was going to let that food go to waste? It was either eat it or throw it out, and he'd rather eat it.)

Suddenly, Mister Fantastic perked up, looking down the platform and pointing his ears in that direction too. He let out a meow; not one of his usual ones (Lucas had learned to recognize the ones he used to call Lucas, to ask for food or water, and to demand that he be let out before he opened the door himself and left anyway), but not one that sounded distressed either.

An old man came out of the crowd. By the way Mister Fantastic looked at him, and the way he zeroed in on Mister Fantastic, the man was somebody Mister Fantastic knew. Maybe even the person he stole Lucas's lunches from.

"Don't give me that look," the old man said to Mister Fantastic. "You knew I was going to follow you eventually." Mister Fantastic got up and twined around the man's legs, vocalizing the whole time. The man let the cat have his say. "You finished now? Good." Finally he paid some attention to Lucas.

Lucas gulped nervously. "Um, is this your lunch? Mister Fantastic keeps giving them to me every day, so I figured he must be stealing them from somebody."

"Mister Fantastic?" The man was amused. "Nah, after the first couple of times I knew Henry would take a bag lunch if I made one, so I just started making one for him and one for me. Oh, I'm Abe Morgan."

"Lucas Wahl." Lucas shook the offered hand. "You call him Henry?"

"His full name's Dr. Henry Morgan," Abe declared. "Though some people he'll only let call him Dr. Morgan."

"Does he actually respond to that? Because he always ignores me when I call his name."

"Henry's a bit picky about his name. I think the doctor part of it went to his head." At an indignant meow from Mister—Dr. Morgan, Abe admitted, "Though he actually did go to medical school. He attended so many classes that the school gave him an honorary diploma."

"So he actually is a doctor?" Lucas grinned. "Wait 'til I tell the guys at work this."

"Work?"

"Oh, yeah, he's been following me in almost every day for a while now. We've given up on keeping him out, just made him a little outfit to wear so he doesn't contaminate the evidence or get anything on him that he shouldn't lick off."

"Where do you work?" Abe asked.

"The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. I'm an assistant ME."

"Ah, that explains it. He used to go in to work with my mother; she was a nurse. He used to go in to the emergency room with her, or wherever she was working at the time."

"Really? I mean, other than the evidence he's not going to do much harm in the OCME, but I'd think that with allergies and everything, a cat wouldn't be allowed in a hospital."

"You ever tried to keep Henry out of somewhere he wants to be, or in somewhere he doesn't want to be?" Abe asked rhetorically. "Besides, Henry's great at calming people down, and he seems to have a sixth sense about who has allergies. And about who hates cats, but sometimes that just means he hangs around them even more."

"Yeah, I noticed that. Dr. Washington is not a cat fan, and every time Henry sees him he acts really friendly. Henry, I mean, not Dr. Washington. Though I think Henry might be growing on him. I _swear_ I saw him thinking about petting Henry the other day." The crowd shifted as they saw the train approaching. "This is me," Lucas said. "I mean, obviously, but."

"Ah, I'll let you two get to work then," Abe said. "I just wanted to meet Henry's new friend. Here," he offered Lucas a business card. "Why don't you come by after work? We can work out a custody arrangement, or at least as much as we can when Henry's going to do whatever he wants anyway. I'll make dinner."

"Really?" Lucas asked, taking the card. "I mean, I don't get off until eight, so you don't have to wait for me to eat."

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it," Abe said. "Come on, I know when Henry gets home, and if I know him he doesn't leave until you do. Am I right?" Lucas nodded. "So come by when you're done, I'll make dinner. Now, the two of you had better hurry or you'll miss the train."

"Oh!" The platform was almost empty now. Lucas turned and hurried for the train. Henry paused to rub against Abe one last time, but with a burst of speed made it into the car before Lucas did. "I'll see you tonight!" Lucas called as the doors closed.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi, Detective Jo Martinez. I'm here about the subway—is that a cat?" Jo asked, noticing the very large cat coming up behind the assistant ME.

"Huh? Where?" Lucas asked, looking around. "Oh, Dr. Morgan! _There_ you are! I thought you weren't coming in today."

"Dr. Morgan?"

Lucas shrugged. "Dr. Henry Morgan. He's my cat, technically." Speaking to the cat, he said, "Let's get you suited up, buddy."

"Technically? How can he _technically_ be your cat? Either he is or he isn't, right?"

"Sure, if he was a dog. But can anybody really own a cat?" Lucas asked philosophically while helping the cat into some sort of outfit. "But no, the real reason I say he's only technically my cat is I bought him from the Humane Society a few years ago, but it turned out he already had an owner. He just knows how to escape from places and occasionally gets caught when he's out on his own, since he's got this tendency to take his collar off." He stepped back from the cat, and Jo could see that he was wearing a cat-shaped version of the suits the MEs wore, covering every inch of him other than his face and ears. "And your ID…" Lucas clipped an ID onto the outfit, an ID which looked identical to the IDs of the MEs.

"That still doesn't explain why he's _here_ ," Jo said. "What if he contaminates the evidence?"

"Aw, Henry knows the rules, don't you, buddy?" Lucas asked, scratching Henry's chin. "And honestly, it's impossible to keep him out. He snuck in a couple of dozen different ways before we stopped trying to keep him out."

The chief ME, passing by, gave Henry a quick pat before continuing on her way, completely unconcerned at the presence of a cat in the OCME.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is NOT FLUFF, and may be distressing.

ABE MORGAN, read Jo's caller ID. What could he be calling her about, especially at this time of night? "Hello?" She answered the phone.

"Abraham, stay with me!" she heard, with the slightly echoey sound of speakerphone.

"Abe, are you all right?" Jo asked, suddenly on red alert.

"Jo! Jo, you're there!" The voice exclaimed, and now she could recognize it as her mysterious British caller. "We need an ambulance at the shop. Abe's been stabbed! I'm trying to keep pressure on it, but he needs an ambulance as soon as possible. He's losing rather a lot of blood and I don't know how long he'll last."

Jo didn't stop to quiz the mysterious caller further, just snapped to Hanson, "Hanson, get a bus to Abe's shop ASAP, he's been stabbed and it doesn't sound good," and started hurrying out to her car. Hanson dialed as he followed on her heels.

"Abe, stay with me, an ambulance is on the way. Just hold on, you're going to be all right."

"Can you give me any details?" Jo asked. Maybe she could have pried some personal information out of her mysterious caller now, while he was distracted, but there were more important things to worry about.

"Abe's been stabbed in the upper left abdomen," the mysterious caller said, his consonants almost overly-precise, like he had to try harder to enunciate in his agitated state. "I don't believe any organs have been hit, but he's bleeding rather a lot. I've been keeping pressure on it as much as possible, but I'm afraid my physical constraints made it impossible to call you and keep pressure on at the same time, as Abe's barely conscious, much less able to help."

Jo relayed that information to Hanson, who passed it on. "Did you see his attacker? Anything that might help us catch him?"

"Henry got the knife out of his hand," the mysterious caller said with satisfaction. "The knife's here, and the attacker has some scratches that will require treatment. As far as description, he was about six foot, slim build. He had pizza for lunch, I believe from Angelo's on 49th; I could smell it on his breath."

"What about clothes?" Jo asked.

A pause. "I don't pay much attention to clothing, I'm afraid. He was wearing a t-shirt with writing on it, but I didn't have my glasses on so I was unable to read what it said. I believe the shirt was green, but I'm colorblind, so you should definitely take that description with a grain of salt."

Jo pulled up to the shop at the same time as the ambulance did. She could hear the siren echoing through the phone. "I guess I'll finally get to meet you."

The mysterious caller cleared his throat. "I'm afraid not this time. Please, direct the paramedics to the basement; the door should be unlocked. Henry will take care of Abe until they arrive."

"You're trusting a _cat_ with this?" Jo exclaimed incredulously. There was no reply; the man was already gone, though he hadn't hung up the phone: Jo could hear Henry meowing. Jo swore. "Hanson, we've got to get the paramedics in there fast. He's gone, and the only one helping Abe now is the cat."

"What, he just bailed?" Hanson asked. "What is _wrong_ with people?" They hurried in, directing the paramedics to the basement.

The basement was a mess. There was a trail of blood leading up and out the door that the assailant must have spread, mostly drops and some partial shoeprints, but once they got down into the basement the mess really started. A knife lay near the smaller puddle, so that must be the attacker's blood. The larger pool of blood was under Abe. Both pools of blood had been spread all over the place; there were bloody footprints everywhere, both human and feline. Almost every inch of Henry was covered with blood, and he was pressing a blanket onto Abe's body with his front paws.

One of the paramedics tried to shoo Henry away from Abe, but Jo could tell from the way Henry was staring intently at Abe and meowing that he wasn't paying a bit of attention. His ears weren't even swiveling to follow their movement around the room. The paramedics seemed hesitant to approach Henry, which was understandable considering he looked like a wildcat, especially covered with blood like this.

Jo sighed. "I'll move the cat, you be ready to move when I do," she said to get the arguing over with. Besides, if she wasn't the one to grab Henry, she wasn't sure he'd let them take Abe in the ambulance without him. She laid a hand on his back and murmured in a soothing tone, "Henry, the paramedics need room to work, okay? I'm going to pick you up. 3 … 2 … 1 … now!" She picked Henry up with only minimal protest, and the paramedics rushed in and got to work. It didn't take long before they had Abe ready to go. Henry struggled a bit to get out of Jo's arms and follow Abe out to the ambulance. Jo kept her hold on Henry. "It's all right, Henry. They're just taking him to the hospital. He's going to be okay, we got here in time," Jo murmured comfortingly into his ear. "Stay here with me. They're not going to let you in the ambulance, and he'll be in surgery for a while. Let us collect the evidence like a good kitty and I might be able to sneak you in to see him once he's out of surgery."

"Come on, Jo, you really think that's going to work?" Hanson asked. "He's a cat, he doesn't understand what you're saying."

Henry stuck out a paw and swiped at Hanson. Claws in, so he wouldn't have hurt him even if the blow had connected, but he only missed getting Hanson's sleeve bloody by a whisker's breadth. The irritated meow he gave Hanson was the most normal thing they'd heard out of him since they arrived.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follows the previous chapter

As Jo approached Abe's room, she heard a murmur coming from it. Even before she could make clearly make out the words, she recognized the voice: her mysterious caller.

"Worried . . . Abe . . . You're going to be—" he cut off mid-sentence as one of Jo's footsteps fell louder than the rest. Was the man paranoid enough that he stopped every time someone happened past Abe's room? Or did he somehow know it was her, and still want to hide his identity from her? Well, if he already knew it was her—Jo opened the door to find . . .

Nobody. Nobody other than Abe, lying on the bed, and Henry, curled up at the head of the bed and somehow managing to avoid disturbing any of the equipment Abe was attached to. It was an impressive feat, especially considering how large a cat he was, and once again Jo wondered just how smart he really was.

A search didn't turn up anybody else. The bathroom and closet were both empty. She would have seen anybody trying to hide under or behind any of the furniture. Jo even checked the window—the room was too high for it to be a reasonable escape route, but at this point she wasn't even sure her mysterious caller would let something like being a few dozen stories off the ground prevent him from escaping. But the window didn't open. So where had he gone? Even if the idea wasn't completely ridiculous, the vents were too small for him to have hidden in them.

"Was that you, Henry?" Jo asked jokingly.

Henry meowed. Jo didn't know how it was even possible, but somehow it was the least convincing meow she had ever heard in her entire life.


	7. Chapter 7

Once upon a time, Lucas had a cat, a very smart cat who he considered renaming Houdini due to his ability to escape from anywhere. Every day when Lucas left for work he double checked that his apartment's windows and doors were not only shut but also locked. He made sure there wasn't any possible way for Mister Fantastic to escape.

Every day, Mister Fantastic followed Lucas to work.

"Lucas, we all love Mister Fantastic," the Chief ME said, Mister Fantastic draped across her lap, "but you know a cat in the OCME is endangering the evidence. And what if he got something on his fur that could hurt him when he washes it off?"

"I know," Lucas said dejectedly. "I'm trying! But maybe I named him wrong, because he's as good at escaping as Houdini. Or maybe I named him right, and he just goes as thin as a piece of paper and slips out under my door."

She pierced him with a glare. "Lucas, I'm going to offer you one more chance."

Lucas knew that he would fail at that one chance. Mister Fantastic was too good at escaping for him to successfully keep the cat confined. But he had to try.

"Here." She handed him a bundle of cloth. Lucas unfolded it to reveal the cat version of the white suits that covered everything from head to toe which they wore to keep themselves clean and the evidence secure. "If Mister Fantastic comes into the OCME, he has to wear that suit or one of these." She pointed to a pile of more white cloth. "If he keeps coming in here without one of them on, well, no matter how much we like him, we'll have to prevent him from coming in any more." Reading between the lines: Lucas would be fired, since Mister Fantastic followed him in to work. "On the other hand, if he wears the suits, well, getting a cat to cooperate every day is a definite sign of leadership potential, isn't it?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.


End file.
